Mekong Media Roundup

HANOI - Trafficked women and children would receive more help to return to Vietnam and integrate back into society with the release of ministry guidelines on effective use of the law, a press conference was told here on June 27.

VIENTIANE - A group of 837 illegal Lao migrants arrived in Vientiane on June 22 after spending years suffering in Thai detention camps.

MAE SOT, Thailand - More than 100 elephants hauling logs on the Thai-Burmese border are in constant danger, as one step in the wrong direction could injure or even kill them.

PHNOM PENH - While English remains the most popular foreign language among students in Cambodia, Chinese, Japanese and Korean are fast catching up as young Khmers increasingly view them as a gateway to better jobs in the country’s growing industrial and tourism sectors.

BANGKOK - Thailand will ask Unesco to delay a decision on Cambodia's proposal to list Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site, said Pongpol Adireksarn, head of Thailand's World Heritage Committee following the Central Administrative Court injunction on June 28 against the Thai government supporting Cambodia's bid.

MANILA - Senior officials of several Mekong countries agreed today to build a bridge across the Mekong River that will connect the south-western Yunnnan province of China directly to Bangkok, Thailand by road.

VIENTIANE - The Lao government has approved plans by two Chinese
companies to conduct a 30-month survey for the feasibility of
developing the Paklay Hydroelectric Power Project in Xayaboury province.

PHNOM PENH - China's Yunnan province expanded economic cooperation with Cambodia in fields ranging from real estate to hydropower plant and electricity transmissi­­­­­on network under new agreements signed here on Apr. 7.

The arrival of the dry season and the emergence of two mega-dam
projects in China have contributed to the drying up of the Mekong
river, with water levels dropping to less than one metre in many
sections, the 'Bangkok Post' reported on Apr. 1.

VIENTIANE – Laos’ health ministry confirmed the Mar. 7 death of the first person with the H5N1 avian influenza virus, more than two weeks after she was hospitalised in neighbouring Nongkhai province in Thailand.